It Happened Once in a Dream
by TheresProbablyMore
Summary: So, this is my first fanfic! Please don't hesitate to tell me what you think about it. Cosima has her hands tied down with college, her sisters, her professor, and later Delphine and DYAD. Warnings: gore, sex, and violence.
1. Chapter 1

It Happened Once in a Dream

Chapter One: With Blood, Sweat, Tears, and Psychology.

Looking in the plain, full-body mirror propped up against the maroon, brick wall sprinkled with ancient, dim colors of spray paint, Cosima saw the oddly familiar, mangled, blond curls of an obvious taller, slender, and bloody pulp of a woman staring directly back at her. Several thick droplets of dark scarlet blood drip down from the distant woman's ghostly white, bony hand—splashing into the giant, red mess. She was wearing a thin, white tank that her blood seeped through making it stick to her frail skin with skintight, midnight black pants. Her thin, pale rose lips were busted with black and blue bruises traveling across her broken face, cuts gashed all over her thin physique, and a swollen, purple-ish hue beneath her left, caramel eye. She lets out a weak smile and raises her blood-drenched hand to the mirror, leaving a small, murderous handprint with heavy, dark crimson blood making its way down. She mouths an undecipherable, inaudible statement to Cosima.

Instinctually, Cosima forces her weak, trembling legs towards the unknown, however familiar, woman, but she was frozen. Cosima's gut sank as her heart swelled up—tearing and breaking the linings of her aching heart-that seemed to have pumping a dozen gallons by each passing second. An entire brew of emotions began to bubble up and snaking its way to her hands and tightly-wired-shut mouth, creating rock solid fists and a sore jaw.

"DELPHINE!" Cosima cries out in complete terror as specs of blood spluttered out of her mouth. Jerking her immobile legs, urging them to move forward, she hastily flicked her attention between her ominously clawed and scratched calves and the gory blonde. "DELPHINE!" she cries out again with hot, salty tears blurring her vision and an iron taste on her tongue.

Taking hold of one of her legs, Cosima vehemently lifted her leg one at a time, urging them forward. Looking down at her heavy, paralyzed legs, her black, thick-rimmed, cat-eyed glasses fell and shattered on the flat, cold, wooden surface and punctured her feet. Blood ran off to the sides, creating a thin, uneven trail. With her clear tears violently crashing down paired with vague shapes of the large loft she somehow knew, Cosima was left unable to see the mystifying woman.

"DELPHINE!" she cries out again; her voice fluctuating up and down and blood clots flying out. Sniffling and trying to keep her tears inside, she forced herself to move more quickly. "I'm almost there, Delphine!" she quietly cries to herself. "I'm almost there…" Cosima breathes, to herself.

Painfully inching closer and closer to the glossy mirror, Cosima was met face to face with the beautiful woman. Heaving hard with blood on the sides of Cosima's mouth, the nauseating feeling in her stomach uproared and her heart swelled up further-being stabbed by the solid bones of her ribcage.

"Delphine…" she softly cries as her lips tremble with fear, anxiety, and desperation. "Don't you dare…" she violently sobs, holding the glass edges of the tormenting mirror.

The woman in the mirror only slightly swayed her butchered face and whispers, "Jamais," as she reaches out, trying to caresses Cosima's scorching red, sweaty cheeks, but only touch the cold, glass of the mirror. Her large, puppy-brown eyes, however, sympathetically said otherwise.

"Delphine…" Cosima whispers. "You're not going to die today, Delphine," she reassures the blood covered person who thinly veiled her vacant looks with cheap hope.

Tilting her golden locks of hair with her sunken face, the stranger smiles with bloody tears running down her face and diverges the conversation, "You look good."

Cosima, after shaking her shaven head, finally smiles and jokes, "Almost as sexy as my tubes, right?" Lifting her trembling hand to the flat, cold mirror where the blonde's cheek appeared to be. "We're goin' to find a way," she murmurs. "You're going to be fine, Delphine," she strongly declares as her voice quivers. She slammed her stone-hard fists on the mirror trembling in complete fear.

Insistently slamming her hands against the cracking mirror, blood began stream down Cosima's sadistic hands from the miniscule shards of glass deeply lodged inside. Smashing her hands against the mirror harder with each thrust, her whole body began to violently shake.

"Cos...Cos…" began a faint, recognizable voice. "Cosima…! Cosima...!" it began to screech somehow making Cosima's arms stiff and paralyzed. "Cosima! Cosima! Cos!" the voice powerfully bellows, as an intense splash of wintery water jolted Cosima awake.

"Cosima," began a familiar, raspy southern belle accent, "what the _hell_ were you dreaming of? Are you okay?" she asks, clutching Cosima's freezing wet body close to her with a warm embrace.

"H-holy s-s-shit, Victo-tor-ria" Cosima stutters, "Total-ly-ly, I-I'm fine. Just w-woke up with a bucket of ice water. Completely c-chill," she glares.

Pulling back, leaving Cosima's chest bare and frozen, Victoria's electric blue eyes had a range of emotions from petrifaction to complete frustrated anger to relief all of which pierced through Cosima.

"Well, what else was I suppose to do, Cos? You were screaming 'Delphine, Delphine, Delphine!' and nearly pushed me off the bed 'cause you were moving so much!" she yells with her hot, firm hands on Cosima's shoulders and her ravenous, dyed black hard in a bun and askew as her dark eyebrows furrowing down with concern.

Slowly raising her arctic hand to caress Victoria's warm cheeks, Cosima leans in and whispers, "I-It was just a d-dream, Tori." Cosima reassures her as her hand traveled to the back of her messy, midnight black hair and pulled her closer in, "Just a dream, that's all."

Victoria, compliantly leaning in, softly kissed the chilling lips of Cosima and parted.

"Who's Delphine, then?" she softly asks, slowly pulling back and gently taking Cosima's hands off her head.

"I don't know who they are, Victoria," Cosima replies, subtly shaking her head. "Like I said: it was just a dream."

"Then who was she in your dream?" Victoria immediately shoots up. "'Cause you 'n I both know that you only see faces that you've seen in your dreams. And, I just wanna know if you _know_ her, at least."

Anxiety instantly shot up in Cosima's spine and the familiar feeling of her stomach sinking returned, and she immediately replies, "A dolphin."

Victoria, suspiciously raising one eyebrow and slightly elevating her tan chin, queries, "A dolphin? You were having a nightmare about…a dolphin?"

Cosima, sweetly grabbing hold of Victoria's clammy palms and repositioning herself, slowly replies and smiles, "No-dol_phins_. Haven't you heard those…" she breaks off and lifts her hands from grasping Victoria's nervous hands and continues with subtle hand motions, "_Bizarre_ dolphin stories, lately, Tori? Blubber and everything, it's just a complete mess."

Softly chuckling, Victoria smiles and accepts Cosima's lies, and sweetly suggests, "Now, you've got to get clean, don't'chu?"

"I don't know. I _did_ just wake up with a cold shower," Cosima replies, smiling ear to ear as she eyes Victoria's tan, muscular body and her black bra with gray lacings on the corners.

Victoria, leaning in close to Cosima whom passively lies down and let's her hands wander to the Victoria's built, lower back, counters, "Then, I guess we're just gonna hafta get dirty again, don't we?"

Softly laughing, Cosima begins, "I don't think it works like that, Tor—" before getting _rudely_ interrupted by Victoria's lovely kisses. As Cosima felt the sides of Victoria's mouth slightly tug up, Cosima's stomach only sunk lower.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two: To Subdue the Stemmed and Expanding Predicament

Cautiously eyeing the bright, hot pink phone that sat across from Cosima's empty bedside table besides the giant, scarlet numbers flickering on and off stating it was 6:21 AM, Cosima quickly stashes it in her left, maroon, butt pocket. The far-off sound of thousands of water droplets harshly hitting against a ceramic surface abruptly stops—Victoria finished with her shower.

"Heyy, Cosima?" Victoria booms from the bathroom. "Where's your outlet? I need to get ready for class, today."

Swiftly gaining her way to the slightly tinged yellow door, Cosima gently grazed her left hand against the stained white doorframe. Looking at Victoria in light floral pink towel hanging from the bottom of her waist, Cosima slowly made her way up to Victoria's dark café brown, erected nipples, most likely cold. Her ravenous black hair dripped with steaming hot water. Grinning, Cosima pops her head into the bathroom and delicately grabs the thick, smoky black, plastic cord. Cosima, after redirecting her attention from Victoria's tired, bright baby blue eyes to her classy, dark navy blue walls, turned right and plugged the cord into the dim yellow outlet underneath a framed picture of Da Vinci's face split with Mona Lisa's.

Cosima, cocking an eyebrow, chuckles under her breath and playfully grins, "Not trying to be _negative_, but it's not like the socket's been _ohm_-mitted, Ms. Stark."

Cringing and narrowing her blue eyes, Victoria shakes her head and bluntly responses, "Cosima… Honey… No…"

Cosima, slowly taking her fingers off of the doorframe one by one, inches her way into the hot condensation of the bathroom, and smirks, "What? I thought they were…" Cosima breaks off to step closer to the woman towering over her. "_Electrifying_," she slowly draws out to finish, locking her gaze onto Victoria's angular, tan face.

Victoria abruptly laughs before taking hold of Cosima's cooler hands and softly leaving a single kiss on them as she stares at Cosima's hazel eyes, and gently pleads, "Please, stop."

An eruption of burning, nauseating guilt explodes in Cosima's stomach and begins to gradually shiver up her spine. Cosima hushes her skittish anxiety with a half-hearted smile and quietly accepts her plead after detangling her hands out of Victoria's.

Victoria, sliding her elongated hand to the back of Cosima's soft, wavy, dark umber hair, leans in closer and gently presses her damp forehead against Cosima's. Crouching down, Victoria tenderly brushes against Cosima's soft, rose pink lips.

Cosima abruptly tugs her head away from Victoria's delicate grasp, and subtly clears her throat. She forcefully plants a complacent smile to mask her small coughs. Lifting her head up to directly look into the clear, oceanic blue iris', Cosima carefully removes herself from the bodily heat beaming off of Victoria.

Clearing her throat, Cosima's coyly says, "School's going to start soon." Backing away from Victoria and towards the flimsy, slightly yellow door, Cosima smirks and says, "Can't be late, _Professor_."

Victoria, after reaching out her long arms to grab Cosima by the waist, and longingly whines, "Just five more minutes, Cos. Five more, I swear."

Pushing off Victoria's hands by her muscular forearms, Cosima excuses herself and says, "I've actually got to make a call—a really _important_ call."

Victoria grumpily accepts Cosima's excuse, and returns her attention back on her drenched, thick, curly hair after sternly injecting, "Okay, but it better not to be buying anymore weed, Cos, or I swear to god."

"Relax, Tori," Cosima shouts over Victoria's blowdryer.

Once closing her apartment door, Cosima carefully whips out the plastic phone and begins to twiddle with the blazing pink rubbery case in between her hands. Diving into the contacts, her hazel eyes glosses over the short list of contacts programmed in until reaching "C". She waits for the ring.

"C'mon, pick up, pick up" Cosima impatiently mumbles to herself.

After three rings, an attentive and calming voice answers, "Hello?"

"Hey Beth," she smiles, "It's Cosima."

"Heyy," Beth coolly replies. "What's up, Niehaus?"

Placing the phone to her right ear, and raising her shoulder, Cosima answers, "Yeah, not much. Just, like, when're you free?"

"I'm not looking for anyone right now, Cosima," Beth jokingly counters.

Forcing a breath of air shoot out of her nose, Cosima lets out a relaxed smile and sarcastically answers, "Yeah, totally. Especially with you hooking up with—what's her name—Alison Hemlicks?"

"_Hendrix_, Niehaus. Hen-drix," Beth harshly corrects.

"I'm not hearing a 'no'," Cosima smugly smirks.

"Nothing's happened, Niehaus," Beth strongly assures Cosima.

Carelessly laughing, Cosima immediately responds, "_Yet_." Switching the phone to her left ear, she again asks, "But, really. When're you free? I need to talk to you."

"I'm free for most of the day, Cosima," Beth begins. "Not like there's a hell of a lot to do in Minnesota. Just tell me when, alright?"

"Totally," Cosima agrees, letting a long, awkward pause escape and fill the void between them. "Beth, thanks," she sincerely adds.

"No problem, Niehaus. Just text me, alright?"

"Will do. See you later."

Beth hung up.

Cosima reenters the room to see Victoria, in a flowing, white blouse, opened in the back, with a single-colored, blush pink, skinny jeans, and black, with a tiny, polished golden chain across the front, 4-inch wedges, and wildly, frizzy hair confidently striding out of the bathroom and towards her. Cosima clears her dry throat.

"Hey, Professor Stark," Cosima grins as Victoria outstretches her arms and angelically places her hands on Cosima's shoulders.

"Is something wrong, Cos?" she sensitively asks, sliding her hands up and down and cocking a single eyebrow while furrowing the other, and subtly tilting her innocent head to the right. "Like, did I do something wrong?"

"Yeah—no. I, mean," Cosima awkwardly begins. "Everything's fine," she finishes, weakly smiling and looking up at the woman who taught psychology her freshman year. Pulling away from Victoria's grip, Cosima turned and moved her hands in an odd, small up and down direction. "Just school, y'know?" she finishes, inhaling an unreal amount of air into her lungs as she returns to her bed.

Victoria, discretely walking up behind Cosima, she wrapped her arms around Cosima's waist and left a tenderly kiss on the side of her smooth neck before placing her head down on her shoulder, and soothingly whispers, "You know you could tell me if something's bothering you, Cos."

"Yeah, I know," Cosima reluctantly replies, adjusting and turning her head to see the woman staring directly back at her with trembling, bright grey-blue eyes. Leaving a small peck on Victoria's soft, mint-flavored lip-balmed lips, Cosima breathes, "I know," as guilt bubbles up from her stomach and began to take hold of her heart—mercilessly squeezing it.

* * *

Placing the small drop of the water-like blood sheathed in the small, thin piece of fragile glass underneath the ancient, dirty white microscope, Cosima began to tune in and focus onto the oval, scrunched, red blood cells being slowly devoured by unknown black and blue specs attaching themselves on. Her stomach sank.

"Hey, Scott," she hollers, keeping her eyes on the blood sample. "Did you—uhh," she begins to ask, slowly lifting her heard from the microscope and replacing her thick, heavy plastic goggles with her large, cat-eye, jet black glasses, "Get the analysis from the sample of 422n31?"

Cosima, fixating her attention to the blood's documentation and her recording, begins to extensively analyze the rapid progression of the unknown infestation. Tucking in her lips, she grazes her long, index finger on the pictures and what she had wrote.

_CASE ONE OBSERVATION: _

_ Month 1:_

_Thinner and smaller than usual blood cells_

_Lack of red blood cells_

_A little less red (hemoglobin)_

_Mostly left is serum_

_Mis-shapened._

_Wavy-ish edges _

_Poikilocytosis_

_Varying structures_

_Lack of fluidity _

_Little white blood cells_

_Plaque (?) _

_ CASE TWO OBVSERATION: _

_ Month 3:_

_Thin_

_More plaque _

_Still wavy_

_Poikilocytosis_

_Less red blood cells _

_Have begun sticking together_

` _CASE THREE: _

_ Mnth 4: _

_Extremely thin_

_Like water_

_Pleomorphic Microbes_

_Fuck. _

_Long coils of blood cells _

_Shit shit shit shit. _

Leaning back in her ash grey, thin plastic, swivel chair and tracing her hands along her freezing forehead to the back of her thick, sepia brown, tightly-tied hair, Cosima breathes out and closes her tired eyes.

Clearing her parched throat, Cosima's curiously hollers again, "Scott?"

She reopens her green-blue eyes and leans back up in her less-than-comfortable chair. Casually surveying the cramped, sickly-sterile white lab room, she locked her eyes onto the back of her nerdy, gigantic lab assistant making conversation with a stranger. Overhearing their conversation, if it could be _considered_ that, Cosima heard Scott's nervously blabber about Dungeons & Dragons. Cosima hopelessly sighs and glides to her towering, caramel haired assistant.

Cosima, placing her hand and leaning on Scott's meaty shoulder, looks at the stranger's uncomfortable-ness masqueraded behind a large, false smile. The odd sense familiarity in the woman's shoulder-length, dirty blond curls and her smile, masking the uneasiness of Scott's incessant chatting, and her large, milky-brown eyes made Cosima's stomach flutter and oddly drawn to her.

"He's a virgin," Cosima smugly smirks, "In case you couldn't tell." Eyeing the unknown person's frozen face slowly eases up and catching a small, subtle snippet of her laughter underneath her breath, Cosima straightens her posture. Scott's shoulder sinks and relaxes underneath Cosima's hand. Taking her hand off of Scott, she outstretches her hand and greets, "Hey, I'm Cosima."

"Nice to meet you, Cosima," the blonde politely greets in a thinly veiled French accent—having the tip of her tongue tap her two front teeth as she talked. She heartily shakes Cosima's warm hand and sweetly smiles, "I'm Delphine."

The sense of nostalgia blows and slams into Cosima stomach. Hearing the hardly audible statements of defeat and her helpless screams of anguish, Cosima swallowed hard. Her throat felt raw and sore as her tongue felt dry and stiff. Restraining herself from whimpering, she lets out a honeyed smile.

"I'm—uh," Scott coyly says motioning that his exit with his thumbs sticking out of his fists, "I'm gonna go and—um—yeah…"

"Okay, Scottie," Cosima attentively agrees, redirecting her attention and cocking her left eyebrow to Scott. "Just don't forget about 422n31."

"Right," Scott blandly says, moving his both of his index finger up and down while his hand was still clenched to signify his understanding as he awkwardly stands up and huddles away with his shoulders hunched over.

Returning her attention to Delphine, Cosima casually apologizes, "I'm sorry about that. I heard him go on and on about Dungeons & Dragons." Empathetically smiling, Cosima continues, "He's a real good kid—just...nervous."

Delphine, waving her hands back and forth, replies, "Oh no, no no. He was fine."

"So, are you, like, new around here?" Cosima curiously asks, moving her hands to take up the space around her. Feeling the tension in her chest finally release as Cosima breathes out, she graciously smiles, "I just haven't seen you around here before."

Delphine smiles. Her dimples caved, as well as Cosima's stomach, and her eyes lit up. Cosima's guilt crawls back and began settling into her legs and arms, stretching across her chest to reach another each arm. She ignored it.

Delphine slowly nods her head and answers, "I just—uh—came in." Licking her pale, powder pink lips, she abruptly injects, "From France." Ruffling through her shining, blonde hair, Delphine tilts her head and carefully raises both of her eyebrows.

"Well, enchanté and welcome to Minnesota," Cosima beams smugly. "What, uh," Cosima begins to ask, ignoring the vibrations in her back pocket and moving her hands in small circles, "What're you majoring in?"

"Biomedical engineering," Delphine responds with an unmoving smile. Closing her eyes, Delphine faintly shakes her head as her smile diminishes and apologizes, "I'm sorry, but, um… I need to continue to, uh… continue my research."

Cosima, carefully tilting her head to the right and scratching in between the thick hairs on her head, cheerfully, despite how the chilling ice formed up in her stomach began seeping its way into her thighs and hands, says, "Yeah, totally! Good, um, good luck 'n all."

Cosima's chest tightened-feeling as if a constrictor was wrapping its long, smooth body around her lungs and mercilessly squeezing. She runs her fingers along the flat, icy cold, metal surface of the lab table.

"Thank you," Delphine draws out, leisurely nodding her head. "Maybe—uh—I could… Um…" Biting her lower lip and closing her eyes, she blatantly blurts out, "Maybe I could see you again?"

Cool relief ran down Cosima's body, letting her graciously exhale and lift her hand off of the glimmering, silver table. Another insistent vibration shook her left ass cheek. Cosima, after tucking her lips in, smiles-slightly squinting her eyes—and agrees.

"Yeah, uh, totally," she chirps. "Well, um, au revoir."

Chucking under her breath, Delphine spits back out, "Au revoir, Co-si-ma."

Returning back to her original lab area, Cosima whips out the hyper pink, plastic phone. The abraded, bright screen turns on as Cosima hit the green, call button.

_You have 3 messages._

After unlocking the phone, Cosima carefully read the three texts.

_am i okay? do you have cure?_

_am i need to send you more blood?_

_are you okay? please reply cosima._

Sitting back down in her uncomfortable, plastic, swivel chair, Cosima cleared her throat as her stomach plummeted. She meticulously punched into the phone's small, pepper grey keyboard:

_Still working on it, Katja. Everything's under control._


End file.
